General subwoofer question?

Is it better to get a amp that over powers you sub a bit and turn the setting down so your geting enough power to bump that woofer or power it at the correct settings.
I have an alpine type R 12 powered by a kenwood 1000watt class D @ 2ohms in a ported box sounds it moves my rear view mirror and size mirrors.

 

when i installed my setup, i was told the same. however i just looked online and bing searched it... from what ive read on all the sites i clicked on including forums and what not, people say thats not true. people online say underpowering your subs is like turning your volume down. if underpowering your subs can cause damage, then so can turning your volume down to 1. but i still am no expert, thats just what the first few websited i saw said... but ive also heard it is better to have more power and just turn it down. thats what i did. One guy said its like having a ferrari, just because it goes over 200mph, doesnt mean it has to... so i have no clue! best of luck to you! lol

 

Well I talked to a buddy of mine who knows a hell a lot more than I do. He said you probably won't damage your subs, but you will likely damage your amp. He put it like this, imagine you are the amp, and the sub is a brick wall. Lets say you can run into something with a force of 250lb. But the brick wall requires 500lb of force to knock it down. You can run into that wall all day, but eventually you are gonna hurt yourself and quit. And even I you turn the amp down some, you can walk into the wall, and it may take longer to hurt yourself, but eventually you'll hurt yourself and quit. If that makes sense.

 

First off, gain isn't a volume knob. Second, people say it's "good to over power them" is because most people don't think of the other things that affect impedance, for example, you wire your subs for 2 ohms at the amp, but the actual load could be more like 3 from things like wiring, and "box rise" as is referred to. And the recommended power on the box also covers their warranty, but usually doesn't reflect what the sub can actually handle... For example my zv3 12 is rated at 1500 but could easily take twice that daily....

 

Under powering doesn't hurt subs lol the amount of power going to your subs is constantly fluctuating during music....so there's your answer to that

 

Nobody said gain is a volume knob?

 

I have personally installed more stereos than I can remember. Obviously these are all good points. Currently I am working for a company that installs very expensive systems for stages and gyms alike. There is a simple calculation for impedence and wattage, or voltage for that matter (depending on your system). I currently have 2 12" woofers in my truck (both in a single 12" box, modified of course, not recommended). These are both powered by a 500 watt HIGH output amplifier producing the necessary impedence. In any case certain amplifiers are designed for certain applications. On a professional level you would equate size of application (trunk, hatchback or back of a van), subwoofer style/class/impedence/wattage, box style and amplifier. I have seen very expensive HIGH output amplifiers overpower 1500 watt subs using only 50 watts. My application includes 2 600w kickers being powered by a kicker 500w amplifier, this system has caused much hearing damage over the past year or so.
All I am saying is you generally get what you pay for. You may have to play around a little bit. With your system being behind your head you will likely hear maximum excursion before you would in a trunk. I have solved this problem before by filling my sub box with cotton batting (the shit that fills you pillow).
Where ever you will be buying your equipment, they will likely know what you are looking for. Remember though, they are salesmen before your friend. Always shop around. Kudos for doing the research.

 

Amplifiers don't produce impedance

 

You my friend are correct. Resistance. Resistance. Resistance.

 

Always better to have more power in the amp than in the sub. Mine happen to be "equal" at 1000w. But as long as they are relatively similar (not running a 500w amp on subs that can take 2000w, or vice versa) you should be fine.

 

What measurements did you use to determine you're getting 1000 watts? And remember some amps produce rated power at different voltages, example, my sundown saz1500d is rated at 1500@1 ohm @ 12 volts, some use 14.4, which you'll never see consistently, equals inflated rated outputs.

 

Thats what it said on the boxes. That's why I quoted the "equal", because I doubt that they actually are what they are marked as.

 

As long as you don't get clipping or distortion or thermal limits it does not matter one iota either way.

 

It would be perfectly fine to run a sub that can handle 2000 watts off a 500rms amp, why do you think that it would be bad? You can run a 10, 000 watt sub off a 5 watt rms amp and be fine.....and vice versa, no problems running a 5000 watt amp into a 100 watt sub...

 

Devl nailed it - clipping and distortion is what kills speakers. As long as you dont drive your lower powered amp too hard you would be fine. Sending a little more clean power to your speaker than it is rated for is less likely to damage a speaker than sending a little less distorted power to it.

 

It's actually heat, the problem with running less power than recommended is that's when kids start jacking up the bass boost and gain to try get it louder when actually they're introducing clipping and distortion. So if you're not an idiot your sub will be fine.

 

I think the general rule of thumb is to run equal to, or a little bit more power than the sub can handle. That way, you are able to feed the sub enough clean power to run the sub close to maximum potential without clipping.

But no matter what amp and sub combination you're running it's all about the initial setup after the install. With the proper initial setup, any combination is possible. It just may not be to play cleanly, as loud as you would have hoped.